Nov. 5
TEXAS:
Search for inmate goes nationwide
The search for a Texas death row inmate who brazenly escaped from the
Harris County Jail has become a nationwide manhunt, officials said
Saturday.
The Harris County Sheriff's Department continued following up on tips and
possible sightings of convicted killer Charles Victor Thompson but none
have worked out so far, said Lt. John Martin.
The U.S. Marshals Office is now offering a $10,000 reward for Thompson's
capture and has designated him a federal fugitive in order to use its
resources to find him.
"We've alerted airports, border officials, other law enforcement
agencies," Martin said. "This is an extensive search. We are relying on
the public to report any information that they have."
Thompson, 35, of the Houston suburb of Tomball, was condemned in 1999 for
the shooting deaths a year earlier of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip,
39, of Tomball, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of nearby
Spring.
He had been brought from death row to Houston after the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals ordered he be resentenced. A new jury sentenced Thompson
to death Oct. 28. He was in the county jail until he could be transferred
back to prison in Livingston, about 75 miles to the northeast.
Thursday afternoon Thompson was taken to a room in the jail for a meeting
with his attorney. The visitor, however, was not Thompson's attorney of
record, Terrence Gaiser.
Martin said investigators have determined the other person was an
attorney. But his name was not released because he is considered a
witness.
"We are not necessarily suggesting he was involved with the escape but we
will be speaking with everybody who had contact with Thompson," Martin
said.
After the attorney left, Thompson was alone in the room and he managed to
remove his handcuffs and slip off his bright orange prison jumpsuit.
He left the room wearing a dark blue shirt, khaki pants and white tennis
shoes, which authorities believe were the clothes Thompson wore during his
sentencing. Martin said Thompson somehow smuggled them back to his cell.
Thompson then left the prisoner's booth in the visiting room. Officials
don't know if the booth was locked or not.
Once out of the room, Thompson waved a fake ID badge that wasn't
scrutinized and said he worked for the Texas Attorney General's office as
he passed at least 4 jail employees at work stations. Thompson was
eventually let into the jail's visitor's lobby and from there he walked
out of the building and into the street.
Martin said investigators on Friday found the clothing Thompson wore when
he left the building. It was located behind one of the sheriff's
department's other downtown jail buildings and some effort had been made
to hide it, he said.
"It's pretty clear at this point there was somebody helping him," Martin
said.
Also found was the fake ID badge he used, which turned out to be an inmate
ID card with his photograph issued by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice. Thompson had put a piece of tape over the part of the card that
indicates he is an inmate.
Prosecutors accused Thompson of trying to hire hitmen to kill witnesses
against him as well as members of Hayslip's family.
Martin said members of Hayslip's family have been given police protection.
The sheriff's department's internal investigation of how Thompson escaped
also continues.
Martin said while there is no direct evidence Thompson got help from
inside the jail, that has not yet been ruled out.
The sheriff's department is also dealing with the public relations fallout
from the escape.
"There is no good way to spin this," Martin said. "The point is there were
multiple errors on the part of our personnel. This is 100 % human error
that could have been prevented and it wasn't."
(source: Associated Press)
********************
'SOMEBODY IS HELPING HIM'----Escaped killer apparently left his clothes,
prison ID across the street
It's now clear to authorities that convicted killer Charles Victor
Thompson had help in his bold escape last week from the Harris County
Jail.
The khaki pants and dark-blue shirt Thompson wore when he walked out of
the 1200 Baker jail Thursday afternoon were discovered the next day behind
a nearby county jail, said Lt. John Martin, a spokesman for the Harris
County Sheriff's Office.
A deputy making routine rounds Friday found the clothing behind the
building at 1307 Baker, across the street from the jail where Thompson
escaped, Martin said.
"I think that's the clearest indication that we have so far that somebody
is helping him, even if it's just somebody dropping off a change of
clothing," Martin said.
Inside the pants' pocket was Thompson's state prison ID card he flashed
when he duped prison deputies into thinking he was with the Attorney
General's Office. The card, which bears the state seal and Thompson's
photo, had tape covering the word "offender."
"That's the card he showed to deputies claiming to be with the AG's
office, but they were not able to closely examine it," he said.
Martin said the jail deputies would not necessarily be familiar with Texas
prison IDs. The county issues armbands to identify inmates, he added.
Thompson, 35, had spent more than six years on Texas' death row for the
1998 shootings of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and
her new boyfriend, Darren Cain, 30, of Spring.
He was brought to Houston for a new sentencing trial after the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals ruled that his constitutional right to counsel was
violated when prosecutors in his 1999 trial played a recording of Thompson
discussing a murder-for-hire plot.
In the 2nd sentencing trial, a jury last week reaffirmed his death
sentence.
Friday's discovery of the discarded clothes is the latest detail in a
troubling chain of events for sheriff's officials who immediately accepted
blame, calling the escape nothing more than human error.
On his path to freedom Thursday, Thompson encountered a handful of
deputies who could have prevented the escape, county officials said.
After visiting with an attorney, Thompson managed to slip out of the
visitors booth, dressed in the civilian clothes found Friday. His orange
jail uniform and handcuffs were later found in the booth. From there,
Thompson conned his way out of the building by telling deputies he was
conducting a state investigation.
The sheriff's office investigation remains ongoing along with a massive
manhunt, Martin said. Numerous tips continue to pour in, even more so
after Friday's announcement of the U.S. Marshals Service's $10,000 reward,
but none has led authorities to Thompson.
Deputies were dispatched to Tidwell and Interstate 45 on Saturday when a
county employee thought she had encountered the escapee. The man, who
matched Thompson's description and had said he was recently released from
prison, turned out to be someone else, Martin said.
Dozens of federal marshals and area law enforcement officers who belong to
the multi-agency Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force
continue their pursuit of the fugitive.
"This case is more urgent in the sense that he's an escapee from death
row. It's definitely a high priority," said Marianne Matus, a spokeswoman
for the U.S. Marshals Service in Houston. "We do know he's dangerous, and
we want to catch him as soon as we can."
Support for sheriff
Despite the security lapse, county leaders remain steadfast in their
support of Sheriff Tommy Thomas and his department.
Thomas, who has not made a public appearance since Thursday's escape, is
recovering from surgery to repair a detached retina.
"The sheriff has run a strong, secure and well-operated jail facility.
This is very much the exception rather than the rule," said Harris County
Judge Robert Eckels. "I think they've taken quick action, and they've been
responsible and are not trying to affix blame somewhere else, recognizing
it was a problem in the department and are getting to the bottom of it."
Eckels said the escape highlights the need for design and technology
upgrades to county projects, including the ongoing renovation and
expansion of the juvenile-detention facility and a new inmate-processing
center in the design phase.
"We will look at the issues raised in this escape with the new
facilities," he said.
Commissioner Steve Radack said though he's confident Thomas will take
corrective steps, the county will never be able to claim its jail
facilities are escape-proof.
"It's amazing to me that we don't have more incidents like this," Radack
said. "You have to bear in mind there's constantly people coming into our
jail at the same time there's constantly people leaving as people are
arrested and make bond. It's a continuous dynamic and a lot of work."
Thompson's escape comes months after the jail system was decertified for
the 2nd time by the state because of crowding. Sheriff's officials were
clear, however, that the escape was the result of human error and not
related to its staffing level.
In July, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards found that as many as
1,900 inmates were cramped into small quarters and sleeping on mattresses
on the floor, creating greater risks for disease and violence.
RESOURCES
FLEETING FAME
Records from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards show that 400 escapes
have occurred in Texas county jails since 1995, not counting prisoners who
walked away from work details.
The peak year for escapes was 2001 with 58 escapes across the state.
A sampling of some recent escapes in Texas:
Walked away
- Who: Rafael Juarez, 18, and Oscar Daniel Rodriguez, 17. In jail for
unauthorized use of a vehicle
- When: March 2004
- Where: Harris County minimum-security facility
- How: Through an unlocked door leading from the day room to the
recreational area, then escaped through the fence
- Caught: A few hours later
A/C access
- Who: Jason McDonnel, 23, Ronald Lee Bowen, 38, and Duncan Cady, 34. All
nonviolent offenders
- When: Oct. 17, 2005
- Where: San Patricio County Jail in Sinton
- How: Removed an air-conditioning vent in their cell and crawled through
the duct system until they reached an external vent
- Caught: McDonnel and Bowen hours later. Cady the next day
Homemade knife
- Who: Curtis Allen Gambill of Terral, Okla., and Joshua Luke Bagwell of
Waurika, Okla., convicted of murder. Chrystal Gale Soto and Charles
William Jordan, both of Bowie, awaiting murder trial
- When: January 2002
- Where: Montague County Jail in North Texas
- How: Attacked a female jailer with a homemade knife, locked her and
another female co-worker in a cell and escaped in a sport utility vehicle
belonging to one of the women
- Caught: Feb. 7 in Ardmore, Okla., near their campsite at Lake Murray
State Park
Among escapes from the state Department of Criminal Justice:
'Texas 7'
- Who: George Rivas, 30, Randy E. Halprin, 23, Larry J. Harper, 37, Donald
Newbury, 38, Patrick H. Murphy Jr., 39, Michael A. Rodriguez, 38, and
Joseph Garcia, 29. Garcia was convicted of murder; Rodriguez was serving a
life sentence for capital murder.
- When: Dec. 13, 2000
- Where: Maximum-security Connally Unit near San Antonio
- How: Overpowered eight employees and 2 guards. Stole pants, shirts and
coats from the men, including an officer's uniform, keys to a truck and a
hand-held radio. From a maintenance building, they went to a gate and
convinced the guard they were a work crew, then overpowered the guard.
Outside the fence, they convinced an officer in a guard tower they were
there to install equipment. They overpowered him, stealing guns from the
tower. They fled in a state-issued pickup.
- Caught: 5 caught Jan. 22, 2001, at a Woodland Park, Colo.,
recreation-vehicle park. Rivas, Halprin, Rodriguez and Garcia surrendered.
Harper committed suicide. On Jan. 24, 2001, Newbury and Murphy surrendered
at a motel in Colorado Springs.
(COMPILED BY KIM COBB - source: Houston Chronicle files, Associated Press)
(source: Houston Chronicle)
*******************
Nurse is fit to stand trial in 10 deaths, doctor says----Defense takes
issue with report calling her anti-social, narcissistic
In Montague, a former nurse accused of giving lethal drug doses to 10
patients craves attention, enjoys notoriety, lies and has the personality
traits of someone capable of killing, according to a psychiatrist who
examined her.
Vickie Dawn Jackson has a mixed personality disorder with anti-social,
narcissistic and histrionic personality traits, Dr. Lisa Clayton wrote in
a report. She also said Ms. Jackson was competent to stand trial.
The former Nocona General Hospital nurse can easily use and manipulate
people, enjoys having power over others and has a grandiose sense of
self-importance, Dr. Clayton wrote.
"It is my medical opinion that Ms. Jackson does have the personality
traits of someone who could have committed the offenses of which she is
accused," Dr. Clayton wrote, adding that Ms. Jackson sees people as
objects. "She does not have the ability to form deep personal attachments
or empathize with others."
Ms. Jackson's capital murder case remains on hold while an appeals court
considers whether she can go to trial again after her mistrial this year,
and her attorney said Friday that Ms. Jackson maintains her innocence.
"Dr. Clayton should have kept her editorial comments to herself and just
said whether she found Vickie competent or incompetent to stand trial,"
attorney Bruce Martin said.
Dr. Clayton examined Ms. Jackson at her Lewisville office this summer as
part of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation after Ms. Jackson reported
hearing voices.
Dr. Clayton and Dr. James Shupe, an Irving psychiatrist who evaluated Ms.
Jackson 2 weeks later, found she was sane at the time of the alleged
offenses and competent for trial.
"While Ms. Jackson adamantly denies her guilt in the alleged offenses she
is accused of, she appears to be extremely glib and unremorseful about her
situation," Dr. Clayton wrote in the report filed in July.
Ms. Jackson, 39, faces up to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors are
not seeking the death penalty.
But her case remains on hold because of another issue. Her attorneys say
that Ms. Jackson's mistrial was caused by a prosecutor's intentional
error, and therefore she cannot be tried again on the same charges.
Prosecutors say it was an accident and that they never wanted a mistrial.
State District Judge Roger Towery ruled in August against the defense
motion, saying a retrial is not barred by double jeopardy. Mr. Martin is
appealing with the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, which could rule
next month.
And Mr. Martin said he will appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals if the
2nd Court of Appeals rules against him.
Judge Towery has set a tentative trial date of April in San Angelo.
Ms. Jackson is accused of injecting the victims with mivacurium chloride,
used to temporarily halt breathing to insert a breathing tube.
(source: Associated Press)
*******************
Conference focuses on child abuse----Attendees say recent death points to
need to improve laws, education
In South Padre Island, the recent death of a 1-year-old Brownsville boy
underscores the need for more education and improved state laws regarding
shaken baby syndrome, attendees at a child abuse conference said Friday.
Dozens of local and state leaders as well as law enforcement officials,
doctors, nurses and nonprofit organization employees packed the 2nd annual
Rio Grande Valley Seminar in Forensic Sciences Friday.
The event continues today but started two days after baby Angel Moreno was
declared brain dead and then removed from life support at the Valley
Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen on Wednesday.
The boy's mother Acela Rosalba Moreno, 25, and her boyfriend Manuel Velez,
40, remain in custody under injury to a child and capital murder charges
in the boy's death.
Velez is accused of violently shaking, beating, biting and burning the
1-year-old boy with cigarettes while court records state that Moreno
burned him once with a cigarette and did nothing to stop her son's abuse.
Prosecutors are considering the death penalty against the Brownsville
couple.
The boy's biological father Juan Chavez told The Brownsville Herald that
he wants authorities to spare Moreno from the death penalty but wants her
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Although the forensic sciences seminar was planned since last year,
organizers and speakers said Moreno's death added a sense of timeliness
and urgency to their conference.
Harlingen residents Mark and Kathy Dittman told attendees that they lost
their 2-year-old daughter Maggie to shaken baby syndrome at the hands of
their babysitter who was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for the
girls death.
The couple successfully lobbied the Texas Legislature to pass a bill
requiring defense attorneys to release their expert witness lists in
shaken baby cases and to deny appeal bonds to people convicted of violent
crimes, but Kathy Dittman said children continue to die from shaken baby
syndrome showing that more work needs to be done.
"What we need is education in schools for kids who are going to be
parents," Kathy Dittman said.
Texas State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, spoke at the event Friday
morning and told The Brownsville Herald that levels of child abuse remain
"unacceptable" in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas.
Lucio said Willacy County leads South Texas in the per capita levels of
child abuse.
"Our work has only begun," Lucio said. "Maggie Dittman and Angel Moreno's
deaths should not be in vain. We should learn from those horrific mistakes
that are made by adult human beings because of their lack of awareness
when one shakes a baby."
Mark Dittman said he and his wife are members of the Shaken Baby Alliance,
a group to support families and professionals whose lives are affected by
shaken baby syndrome.
The Harlingen man said his group plans to reach out to Chavez and the
family of Angel Moreno in order to encourage them to take advantage of
state crime victim's assistance programs and other services.
"He needs to prepare himself emotionally for trial," Dittman said. "He
needs to know that no matter what justice is served, it won't bring him
back."
(source: The Brownsville Herald)
******************************
Deputies had several chances to avert escape
4 or 5 deputies - and possibly more - had opportunities to stop condemned
murderer Charles Victor Thompson before he walked out of the Harris County
Jail, a sheriff's spokesman said today.
As the hunt for the 35-year-old Tomball man widened, Lt. John Martin said
Thompson encountered deputies in at least 3 places in the downtown jail as
he made his way to freedom.
"This was 100 % human error. That's the most frustrating thing about it,"
Martin said. "There were multiple failures. There were several points
where it could have been prevented."
The Sheriff's Department has launched a sweeping internal investigation to
determine how Thompson managed to dupe the jail staff and slip through
what are supposed to be stringent security measures. Martin said
disciplinary action against employees, if any is warranted, will be taken
only after the investigation has ended.
Authorities also are trying to determine how Thompson was able to smuggle
back to his cell the civilian clothes he wore in his final court
appearance, when he was sentenced to death on Oct. 28 for the 2nd time. He
somehow changed into them on Thursday before walking out about 3:30 p.m.,
Martin said.
All of the jail employees who were working when Thompson escaped remained
on the job today, officials said.
While the department may not have all the answers right now, it will have
them soon, said Chief Deputy Danny Billingsley.
"As a department, we're embarrassed about this," Billingsley said. "We're
going to find out what happened, and we're going to fix it.
"We were fully staffed when this happened," he added. "We will not blame
it on staffing. It was not a manpower issue."
Thompson already had spent six years on Texas' death row for the 1998
shootings of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, and her new boyfriend,
Darren Cain. He was in Houston for a new sentencing trial, ordered by the
state Court of Criminal Appeals.
That trial resulted in a jury's decision last week to reaffirm his death
sentence.
Thompson was still in the jail at 1200 Baker when he received a visit from
an attorney at 1:45 p.m. Thursday, Martin said. He was escorted from his
cell to a locked room, where he talked with the attorney through a glass
window, Martin said.
The visitor, whose name Martin could not immediately provide, was not
Thompson's attorney of record.
"I'm not clear on what was the purpose of that attorney's visit," Martin
said.
Thompson and his visitor would have been separated by a window with
"literally a slit at the bottom," through which nothing thicker than a
sheet of paper could be passed, Martin said. He said Thompson's hands were
cuffed in front of his body, so he could sign paperwork, if necessary.
The visitation booths do not have surveillance cameras, and deputies do
not stand outside the doors to monitor what's happening, Martin said.
Thompson, however, was somehow able to leave the booth on his own.
Martin was not sure whether Thompson had been locked inside the attorney
visitation booth, as is required, but he said the prisoner remained there
for almost two hours before leaving. Left behind in the booth were his
handcuffs and the orange jumpsuit typically worn by County Jail inmates.
Thompson walked out wearing the outfit he wore on his last day in court,
Martin said - a dark-blue shirt, khaki pants and white tennis shoes.
Prisoners are not allowed to have such civilian clothing in their cells,
he said.
Thompson approached a "floor control center" booth, where deputies control
access from the secure side of the jail to the public access area
frequented by visitors, Martin said. He told a deputy he was with the
state Attorney General's Office and was conducting an investigation.
The deputy told Thompson he could not exit on that floor, the 2nd, and
would need to go to the 1st floor, Martin said. Thompson then rode down in
an elevator in the secured area andwent to another control booth, where he
told another deputy he was with the Attorney General's Office, Martin
said.
That deputy and another officer then asked Thompson why he didn't have a
Sheriff's Department's security tag. He told them he had entered the
building through a tunnel from another county jail across the street,
Martin said.
One of the deputies then took Thompson outside the secured area, into the
lobby, Martin said. That area has surveillance cameras, he said, but they
are not capable of recording.
"The inmate says, 'My partner's outside waiting on me. Let me run outside
and tell him what's going on. We'll get this straightened out.'
Apparently, they allowed him to walk out," Martin said.
After a short time, he said, the deputies realized they had been duped.
Internal affairs investigators will interview all jail personnel who had
direct contact with Thompson, Martin said. They also will question other
inmates who may have information or witnessed the escape and visitors in
the jail lobby who saw him when he walked out.
Death row inmates who are brought to the Harris County Jail to await court
proceedings in Houston typically are kept in the highest-security cell
blocks and are not placed in the general population, Martin said. They
have their own cells and are allowed out of that space only for short
periods, but never while another inmate is out, he said.
Many death row inmates also are placed in leg irons when removed from
their cells, but Thompson, for some reason, was not, Martin said.
The Sheriff's Office and the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force are
receiving a significant number of leads about Thompson, Martin said.
Authorities had issued a bulletin alerting officers to watch for a Nissan
Frontier pickup belonging to Thompson's father because it was not
immediately found when officers checked the whereabouts of the family's
vehicles. The pickup was found today, however, and there was no indication
that Thompson had used it, Martin said.
"We have no way of knowing if he's still in the Houston area or if he
intends to flee," Martin said.
Although there was speculation that someone had helped Thompson escape,
Martin said, "we don't have conclusive evidence to suggest that."
As for the attorney who visited Thompson, he is considered only a
"possible witness," Martin said. Sheriff's officials would not release the
attorney's name.
Sheriff's officials said they could not immediately provide statistics on
how many escapes have taken place in recent years at the various County
Jail facilities.
But Thompson's escape is unusual because inmates have rarely escaped from
inside such institutions. Most other escapees got away while being
transferred, or walked away while outside the buildings on trusty work
details. Almost none had criminal histories as serious as Thompson's.
"This is fairly unique in that he escaped from inside the facility,"
Martin said.
*********************
2 pictures of killer: Guy next door, sociopath
The idea that Charles Victor Thompson talked his way past several deputies
and security checkpoints came as no surprise to those who knew him.
"He's a friendly, affable person," said Kyle Johnson, a defense lawyer who
has represented Thompson. "He's like the guy next door. He can be very
charming."
Charming is a word old friends, co-workers and lawyers frequently invoked
to describe the 35-year-old Thompson, who remained at large Friday night,
a day after he was allowed to walk out of the downtown Harris County Jail
at 1200 Baker and disappear.
It's not hard to see why. In pictures on anti-death penalty and jailhouse
pen pal Web sites, Thompson is all smiles in his prison whites. In some,
he is with a female visitor. In others, he looks directly at the camera,
an easy grin across his face as though he were standing in your living
room.
One Web site includes samples of his artwork: a lighthouse standing watch
across an empty shore; a family of panda bears before a stand of bamboo.
An Internet search also turns up an essay under his name, describing death
row: the sensory and sleep deprivation, handcuffs, shackles and lack of
windows. Fraught with misspellings and bad grammar, the piece rails
against the death penalty, but offers a glimpse of humanity: "From the day
you hear the decision that the death penalty will be sought, a little part
of you dies silently."
The image Thompson projects is a far cry from the picture presented during
his 1999 capital murder trial. A psychologist characterized him as a
"narcissistic sociopath" who turned violent under stress. A prosecutor
called him a "pretty boy" who flew into rages when he didn't get his way.
The one that put him behind bars was on April 30, 1998, prosecutors said.
That was the day his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, told him she wanted
to be with someone else.
Thompson and the other man, Darren Keith Cain, 30, fought that morning. 3
hours later he kicked in Hayslip's door and shot Cain 4 times before
turning to Hayslip.
"I can shoot you, too," he told her, according to court documents. Then he
pressed the gun barrel to her check and fired. Hayslip, 39, died about a
week later, after telling police Thompson was the killer.
While in jail, he was accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill
witnesses who heard him admitting to the killings - a sign, prosecutors
say, that he was a continuing threat to society and a good candidate for
execution. Prosecutors also showed jurors letters filled with racial slurs
in which he expressed a desire to join the white supremacist group Aryan
Brotherhood. He signed letters to his brother as "the Chuckster Killer."
Jurors convicted Thompson, then 28, of capital murder and sentenced him to
death.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction, but ordered a
new sentencing hearing, saying his right to counsel was violated when
prosecutors played jurors a recording of Thompson discussing a
murder-for-hire plot.
Last week, a new jury voted to send him back to death row.
Thompson's normal appearance masked his aimless immaturity and alcohol and
drug abuse, said Debi French, his former employer at a moving and storage
facility in Tomball.
French on Friday called Thompson a courteous worker who had great
potential, but said constant drinking and drug use held him back from
succeeding in her company. She never heard a cross word from him, even
when she chastised him for showing up late to work because of drinking,
and he often was "crying on my shoulders" about breaking up with Hayslip
during the couple's stormy, on-again-off-again relationship, she said.
"In my heart (I know) he truly and deeply loved Dennise," she said.
As a teen, Thompson had several run-ins with the law for vandalism,
running away and drunken driving, in spite of his aflluent upbringing.
One of his parents' Tomball neighbors remembers Thompson as a "cool guy"
who used to play baseball with him and listen to him play rock 'n' roll on
an electric guitar.
"He was a really cool, really laid-back, nice guy," said Ray Martinez, 23.
"He always had a smile on his face. He was always happy."
At the 1999 trial, psychologist Jerome Brown, who called him a sociopath,
testified that Thompson could benefit from prison life and his personality
might stabilize if he was deprived of alcohol.
After he was sentenced to death a second time last week, Thompson thanked
his attorney, Terry Gaiser, and shook his hand, something that Gaiser said
inmates rarely do.
He is sociable, affable and articulate, Gaiser said, but he never learned
to function as a well-adjusted adult.
"He never really grew up," he said. "He's not known for being a productive
citizen, for sure."
(source for both: Houston Chronicle)
